This invention relates to a horizontally drawable curtain, and more particularly to an improved system for deploying a horizontally drawable curtain on an overhead suspended cable.
Large foldable curtains fabricated of film, fabric, netting, or other flexible structures find use in various applications. They may be employed for the purpose of controllably obscuring objects or areas, such as when used as stage curtains or curtains for concealment of projector screens or exclusion of light. Such curtains, which may extend from ceiling to floor, may also be employed for decoration, acoustic insulation, fire protection, air flow restraint, and space dividing as when used to divide large indoor or semi-indoor areas such as gymnasiums, meeting halls and arenas into smaller separated areas.
In use, the curtain is generally suspended from its upper edge by hooks which engage with an overhead support means such as a rigid track attached to a ceiling or ceiling support beam. Means are usually provided to enable the curtain to be drawn in a horizontal direction in a manner such that the hooks traverse the track by sliding or rolling engagement therewith. From its fully deployed functional state, the curtain is thereby generally drawn horizontally to a stored state consisting of a gathered or compacted array of vertical folds, and positioned under one or both ends of the track. In such mode of disposition, the stored curtain occludes a small but finite fraction of the total expanse spanned by the track and occluded by the curtain in its fully deployed state. In re-deploying the curtain, the direction of traversing movement is merely reversed, and the curtain is transferred from its stored position to its fully extended, deployed state.
In certain situations however, there is no structural ceiling available for the mounting of a track device. Such instances prevail for example in the case of large auditoriums or field houses where the ceiling is extremely high compared to the desired height of the curtain, or in inflated buildings having a fabric ceiling maintained taut solely by air pressure, or in buildings or portions thereof having no ceiling.
It is known that curtains or other sheet structures may be hung in fixed stationary, clothesline fashion from an overhead cable suspended from two points of support. Such cables, however, which may for example bridge two walls in a ceiling-less building, are not generally utilized to support a traversing curtain. In those special instances wherein a cable is in fact utilized to support a horizontally drawn curtain, difficulties are encountered when it is desired to have the distance spanned by the cable completely free of suspended curtain when said curtain is in the stored state. This is a particularly desirable accomplishment because one advantage of using a cable to suspend a horizontally drawn curtain is that, once the curtain is transferred from the cable to its stored state, the cable can be removed, thereby eliminating any trace of the curtain system. Such manner of utilization is of value for the purpose of achieving an uncluttered appearance within a building, and in eliminating any obstructions above the normal height of the curtain.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a system wherein a horizontally drawn curtain is supported by an overhead suspended cable. It is another object to provide a horizontally drawn curtain system wherein a flexible curtain may be deployed in its extended state while supported by an overhead suspended cable and said curtain can be made to traverse horizontally to a stored state. It is a still further object of this invention to provide a curtain installation wherein a flexible curtain is deployable in its extended functional state while supported by an overhead suspended cable, and said curtain can be made to traverse horizontally to a stored state where it no longer engages said cable. These objects and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description.